Environmental Impact Assessments (Full scoping and EIA’s as well as BAR)

Environmental Management Plans

Environmental Control Officers

Sustainability Planning

Water Use Licenses

ETC-Africa are members of the International Association For Impact Assessment and have many years experience in managing EIA applications as independent environmental practitioners. Under the EIA regulations an independent environmental practitioner needs to be appointed to undertake the process on your behalf, this ensure a neutral approach and professional opinion on the impact assessment.

Water Use Licensing

Other than permissible water uses (Schedule 1 use and use authorised under General Authorisation), various water uses require licensing. Section 21 of the National Water Act (Act No. 36 of 1998) identifies water uses that require a license. These include:

Taking from a water resource

Storing water

Diverting the flow of water in a watercourse

Irrigation of land with waste water

Disposing of water containing waste

Altering the bed, banks, course or characteristics of a watercourse

ETC-Africa compiles Integrated Water Use License Application (IWULA) in order to obtain licenses for listed water uses. We liaise directly with the Department of Water and Sanitation to ensure the process is carried out as efficiently as possible.

FAQ around the EIA process

Under the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) certain activities or developments are required to get environmental authorization before work / building can proceed. An EIA is the process of identifying all the environmental risks associated with a particular development and ensuring that the risks are mitigated, managed or removed from the equation. An EIA report needs to be written up by an Independent Environmental Practitioner and submitted to the Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs (In KwaZulu Natal) - in some cases the application will need to be reviewed by other departments.

There are three "Listing Notices" which guide and identify which projects require an EIA. These notices identify what are called "trigger activities" - if your project includes any specific activity that is listed as a trigger activity, you will need environmental authorization before you proceed.

Listing Notice 1 identifies trigger actives where the impacts are generally well understood. These activities only require a Basic Environmental Assessment

Listing Notice 2 identifies trigger activities where the impacts could be considered broad and not well understood. These activities require a Full Scoping Report and Environmental Impact Assessment

Listing Notice 3 identifies trigger activities which are specific to a particular province or region.

Step 1: An Initial Application to undertake a Basic Environmental Assessment gets submitted to the department - receipt of this application is acknowledged within 14 days and a departmental reference number is issued

Step 2: A Public participation process is mandatory. This includes putting up signboards, advertising the project in local press and circulating a background information document to all stakeholders and interested parties. Interested and affected parties can register to be involved or make comment on the project.

Step 3: A Draft Basic Assessment Report is circulated to interested and affected parties as well as certain government departments, this could include Water Affairs, KZN Wildlife and local government. Stakeholders have 40 days to review the draft and submit any comments

Step 4: Upon approval of the draft, the final report is submitted to authorization. This can take up to 30 days

Supporting Documents: All Environmental Impact assessments need to include certain supporting documents, these include (but not limited to)

EMP, an environmental management plan which outlines how the project will be implemented and managed, during construction, during day to day management and during decommissioning (if applicable)

Specialist reports, any specialist reports such as ecological assessments, or geotechnical reports which back up the EIA need to be included, these are often drawn up by specialist third party consultants.

Site plan and maps.

Declaration by the landowner, if you do not own the land where the EIA will take place, a special approval from the landowner will be required

There is a mandatory application fee payable to the Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs (KZN) for EIA submissions as of 1 April 2014. These are R2000 for a Basic Assessment and R10 000 for a full scoping and EIA.

Our costs as consultants vary from project to project and depends on the nature of the project, how many specialist reports may be required and complexities of the EMP